The Puppy Present (Red Storybook) Read Online Free PDF Page B

ran down the garden path and unbolted the back gate. The back gate led into a grassy passage with garages at one end, where James’s dad and his neighbours kept their cars. James thought about going to sit in the garage and get started on some of his food, but he managed to resist the temptation. It wasn’t time to start eating just yet. He was running away!
    He ran as far as the end of the passage. And there he stopped. Something had caught his eye. Something under the hedge. What was it? It looked like a bit of old fur coat – except that old fur coats didn’t whimper. This one was definitely whimpering.
    James set down his carrier bag. He knelt, cautiously, to take a closer look. From under the hedge a pair of eyes peered up at him. It wasn’t a fur coat. It was… a dog!

    The next minute James was racing back up the passage, up the garden path, in through the back door, across the kitchen, out into the hall, shouting as he went: “Mum! Mum! Come quickly! I’ve found something!”
    James’s mum came hurtling out of the storeroom. For once she even left the baby behind.
    “What’s the matter? What is it? What are you shouting about?”
    “I’ve found something, Mum! I think it’s hurt!”
    Together, Mum and James went running down the garden path.
    “Out here!” said James.
    “Out here?” said Mum. “What were you doing out— ”
    “Look!” cried James. “Under the hedge!”
    “
Oh
!” Mum was down on her knees in an instant. “It’s a puppy! Oh, the poor little thing! It’s absolutely drenched… run, James, and fetch a blanket! Quickly! A blanket or a big towel. Anything will do. Just be quick!”
    James snatched the first thing that he could find. It was a blanket from the baby’s pram, but Mum didn’t even seem to notice.
    “We must get him to the vet,” she said. “Immediately. Go and tell your dad while I get the car out!”
    James ran into the shop. In front of all thecustomers he shouted, “Dad, I’ve found a puppy and we’re taking him to the vet!”
    “You’re what?” said his dad.
    “Taking him to the vet!” shouted James.
    “What for?” said his dad; but James had already gone hurtling back into the house.
    Mum had taken the baby out with her to the car, but she had left the puppy wrapped in its blanket on the kitchen floor. James squatted down and very gently stroked it.
    “Puppy,” he said. “Poor puppy!”
    The puppy cringed, as if it thought James was going to hit it.
    “It’s all right, puppy!” James spoke crooningly, as he had heard Mum do with the baby. “I’ll take care of you!”
    Mum had come back.
    “I’ll need you with us, James. I’ll need you to keep an eye on the baby.”
    James really didn’t see why the baby couldn’t have been left in the shop with Dad. Did it always have to go
everywhere
with them? He grumbled about it to his mum. “Why can’t we leave the baby with Dad?”
    “Oh, James! Don’t be difficult,” said Mum. “You know Dad’s busy serving customers.”
    Carefully, Mum picked up the puppy and carried it out to the car. She told James to get into the back with the baby and to hold the puppy next to him.
    “Gently! Don’t hurt him.”
    James sat there, with the puppy on one side of him and the baby on the other. He tried showing the puppy to the baby, but the baby just lay there in its special baby seat, kicking its legs and making the ‘Gaa gaa gaa’ noise that it made when it was happy. It probably thought they were going out in the car just for fun.
    “Sick doggie,” said James. You had to talk to babies in baby talk or they didn’t understand. “Sick doggie, going to vet.”
    “Gaa,” said the baby, blowing a few bubbles.
    James gave up. It didn’t even seem to understand baby talk!
    There was an old lady with a cat in the vet’s waiting room, but she took one look at the puppy and said that Mum had better go in first.
    “That’s very kind of you,” said Mum.
    “Quite all right,” said the old lady.